Search smh:

Search in:

NSW govt will slash school jobs: union

A teacher's union says a newspaper advertisement, where it accuses the NSW government of depriving the state's children of a decent education, is accurate.

The state government wants the NSW Teachers Federation to apologise for the full-page ad, which urges parents to "say no" to $1.6 billion in public education cuts, which will slash "1000 school jobs - with more to follow".

"In the next four years the NSW government will invest at least $53.5 billion in education," he said in statement on Thursday.

Advertisement

Mr Piccoli also dismissed the union's claims of jobs being cut as "a bare-faced lie".

"We have employed more than 500 extra teachers since we were elected," he said.

But Teachers Federation president Maurie Mulheron said Mr Piccoli should "read his own media releases" before accusing the union of lying.

Mr Mulheron said the minister issued a report last September, stating that "over the next four years, the total required savings for Education and Communities is estimated to be $1.7 billion".

The report also states that "over the next four years, the department will need to reduce its staff numbers by around 1800", Mr Mulheron said.

"Mr Piccoli does himself no credit at all by denying what his government is doing. Instead, he should be standing with public school communities and advocating on their behalf that these cuts be reversed," he said.